Top cop catches un-FARE crook

Top cop catches un-FARE crook

HEROICS: The top cop stopped a radio interview to catch suspected theif [PA]

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was being quizzed outside a railway station when a minicab driver approached him.

The driver said four men had refused to pay their fare and had fled with his mobile phone and £20.

Sir Bernard, 56, leapt into the taxi and gave chase, arresting a 19-year-old suspect in Tottenham, north London.

A 17-year-old was arrested by another officer at nearby Bruce Grove station. The driver, who gave his name as Mohammed, said: “When I see the police, I ask the police: ‘Please can you stop the guys?’”

He said he was not aware who came to his aid was, but described him as a “very good, very kind” man.

Shortly after the incident the Metropolitan Police Twitter account revealed their chief’s heroics. It said: “Commissioner Hogan-Howe arrested a 19yo man on suspicion of theft @MPSHaringey this morning after being flagged down by local taxi driver.” When Sir Bernard was chief constable of Merseyside, he chased and arrested a suspected drink-driver.

After yesterday’s pursuit, the Commissioner told the BBC: “The important thing for today, at least for me, is that I have made an arrest at every rank as a police officer, so as chief constable at Merseyside, but never as Commissioner, and I have been here three years, that’s very slack, it’s a disgrace, but today we have put it right.”